1 - Trump's crypto venture with Tron platform raises alarming security concerns. A president profiting from networks exploited by militant groups compromises our anti-terrorism efforts. We need leaders who prioritize national security over personal gain and maintain strong financial oversight.
(Youth-focused version: Heads up: Trump's new crypto deal is super sketchy. He's making money from platforms that bad actors use to hide money. A president shouldn't profit from systems that make our country less safe. We need leaders who put our safety first, not their wallet.)
2- Appointing an inexperienced truck salesman to oversee Middle East policy shows dangerous disregard for diplomatic expertise. Complex regional challenges require qualified advisors with deep understanding. Our security depends on competent, merit-based leadership, not nepotism.
(Youth-focused version: Trump picked a used truck salesman with zero experience to handle Middle East policy. That's like choosing someone who's never played basketball to coach the NBA finals. These are serious issues that need real experts, not just friends and family.)
I'm just trying to figure out how we say "these dudes are cray-cray, they're going to cause a lot of problems" while senior Democrats who warned of fascism are also saying "oh, I really look forward to working with Trump and Patel and RFK and Hegseth..."
Simon - I'm struggling with how to call out their insanity, their horror, the amount of suffering they will cause, along with the idea that we need to talk about how great Dems are. It's very difficult if the national Dems are being polite and kind; the Harris campaign felt best when they were making clear that Republicans are completely nuts and weird.
I know that even Joe Manchin would be better than 99% of the Republican party, but how do you handle that when these people who need to actually "oppose" are busy collaborating?
This^^^^. Where is party leadership? The Dems seem ready to bend the knee and T isn’t even in office yet. The only thing I feel like I can do is donate to organizations ready to fight back and post on social media. I spent the better part of a year trying to get Harris and Dems elected (we all do). I’d love to have some marching orders moving forward.
We pester them. Daily. We praise any little good thing they do every time they do it.. We gently chide and question their rationale for the giant bad things we see them do. We remember with compassion that they live in a world with pressures and priorities we may not know about and we ask, firmly, that they explain themselves to us. And maybe we decide to run for office ourselves.
It’s too early on a Monday 10 days before Xmas… to teach the language ( literal and body language of a winning political strategy) to sweet distracted sixth graders… This is a very complex MESS !
Can you imagine how our current diplomats in the Middle East are thinking/feeling?!! Our COUNTRY IS A LEADER AMONG ALL the countries on EARTH .. MUST have some ADULTS
LET US SEIZE OUR OPPORTUNITIES – and they are many!
Simon, great summary, as always! In these dark times, it’s easy to become paralyzed by outrageous news and seemingly-insurmountable challenges. However, the key to remaining effective and building a brighter future is to seize opportunities – and they are there!
Below, I have detailed some concrete examples of our opportunities.
SPECIAL ELECTIONS: We need to fight with our best candidate even in longshot elections. Given Democrats’ recent 2024 wins and Trump plucking nominees from the House, Republicans have a historically narrow margin – a recipe for even greater chaos and paralysis than Johnson & Co have exhibited so far. And Democrats need to be loud about that and squeeze out every concession we can.
However, with skill and luck, the special elections also present a chance to flip the House and make Hakeem Jeffries Speaker already in 2025!
I could not agree more. I've observed in the UK and Europe that the 'left' too often cedes elections in rural areas in particular. This despite a significant minority of the people in such areas supporting progressive politics. I believe this to be prevalent in UK, Europe and USA. So, putting up good candidates and competing everywhere is the right way forward.
With you on the Special Elections work. I am skeptical of Hakeem Jeffries at the moment. If he wants to be our standard bearer in 2026, he better do more than "find common ground" with the party that wants to create a dictatorship of incompetents in 2025.
STATE SUPREME COURTS: State supreme court seats are perhaps the most consequential downballot races in our elections – and yet they are often the most overlooked. This lever of power really matters. We can see how important Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s 2023 win was in Wisconsin! The now-liberal court ended some of America’s worst gerrymanders.
We need to make sure that we run the best candidates and best possible campaigns in every upcoming election for state supreme courts. Imho, Hopium should focus strongly on and invest resources in every such race.
Likewise, we can see how costly our narrow loss was of the North Carolina Supreme Court was in 2020, which up until then had a liberal majority. The new conservative supreme court majority immediately overturned previous court decisions in a blatantly partisan fashion.
Tragically, Cheri Beasley lost by just 400 votes out of 5.4 million cast. Part of the story is that local election boards rejected more than 2000 specific absentee and provisional ballots.
In North Carolina, Republicans are trying to steal Allison Riggs’ recent election victory for the State Supreme Court. Also, the Republican super-majority in the state legislature is trying to strip incoming Governor Josh Stein of key powers. These undemocratic power grabs need to be stopped!
DEMOCRATIC TRIFECTAS REALLY MATTER! One of the best ways to show the contrast between Us and Them is to highlight the difference between what Democrats and Republicans do in states where they have a trifecta. That contrast is stark – and it should be publicized far and wide and loud!
With trifecta control of state government, Democrats accomplished incredible things in Michigan under Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and under Governor Tim Walz in Minnesota. (Compare that with e.g. DeSantis’ Florida or Abbott’s Texas.)
Unfortunately, Democrats just narrowly lost their trifectas in both Michigan and Minnesota.
Democratic trifectas are the recipe for getting good stuff done. These Blue states need to be our exhibition windows.
Love this idea of showcasing red v blue states in terms of quality of life, economics, health outcomes, etc! Could also do that over time with swing states like MI, comparing the Whitmer era with the Snider era, for example (reminder: Flint water crisis happened under Snider, a republican)
Ballotpedia lists the 15 current Democratic Trifecta states as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington. In NM Democrats have the state House, the state Senate, all US Congress members, Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Auditor, State Treasurer, Commissioner of Public Lands.
DON’T OBEY IN ADVANCE MEANS A DEM CANDIDATE IN EVERY RACE!
In 2024, Democrats left more than a thousand legislative races uncontested. That is political malpractice! For it is tantamount to conceding defeat and "obeying in advance". (The fact that Republicans failed to contest even more legislative seats, more than 1300, is NOT a mitigating fact.)
The Florida Democratic Party showed us how to do it: they made sure to run a candidate for every legislative seat! Florida Democrats are getting their mojo back.
We need to duplicate that strategy in all 50 states!
Despite the fact that Trump has transformed the Republican Party into the proto-Fascist MAGA Party, not all Republicans are on board with all of his policies. On specific issues, we can seize the opportunity to form some surprising alliances. For example:
Rand Paul (yes, him!) is deeply skeptical of Trump’s costly border and deportation plans. Importantly, Senator Paul can do something about it; he will chair the Senate committee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security. Because the border & deportation is Trump’s Priority No.1 for early 2025, Democrats can work with Senator Rand Paul to block, modify or slow-walk implementation of Trump’s inhumane policies. Destroying this keystone will politically weaken him, while strengthening us in other upcoming battles.
This article highlights Rand Paul’s views and is well worth reading.
You have expressed my thinking about some Republicans being skeptical with (and I would hope appalled at) Trump's policies and nominees. I need advice from a political strategist about the 48.4% of us putting pressure on the Republicans in office to not go along with the "blow torch" approach to reforming our government and destroying our Democracy. I cannot stand by and let any of this happen. I want to find an effective action to take. I have emailed, written letters and called Republicans on the judiciary committee to insist that they carry out their responsibility to vet the nominees. I am encouraging others to do the same. My question is - am I naive in thinking this is a good plan? If it is a good plan are their others who want to join me? And what would it take to make this really work? All thoughts are welcome. Anita Bingaman from Washington State.
In a number of Hopium posts, Simon has posted concrete suggestion. And in comments, numerous people have shared examples and suggestions, as well as info about good networking and groups beyond Hopium. They have offered far better advice than I can! :)
“…once Trump and the Republicans take over next year and we become the opposition and no longer the governing party.” This direct quote from this article is the reason I have no Hopium anymore. No offense meant but the ONE and ONLY conversation we need to be having is how to STOP Putin from taking over America. I can participate (or lead) that movement. NO OTHER will do. Once they got into the White House the doors are locked to all of us. That is how fascism works.
How we stop Putin is the question. Building Grassroots opposition is the answer. Give the scared little people back a vision of empowerment and a thirst for sunlight.
Simon, I hope you and our community will accept this request in the spirit intended. I'm posting here because your activism has inspired me to pivot professionally: I'm seeking work in the nonprofit sector, preferably in some aspect of civil rights. I'm a writer, editor, proofreader, etc. with a strong research background and would love to put my skills to good use opposing what's ahead for this country.
I'm not asking anyone for a job. I know I need to earn that; and I can earn it. If anyone can help me build my network, I would deeply appreciate it. I can be found on Linked In under this name. Contact there or through the DM tool here is welcome. Thank you!
All the analysis of the new (sorry) administration is exhausting ...so I support, applaud, and NEED your optimism and hope wherever we can find it. Thank you, Simon...my political soul can read your reports.
Hi Simon, I applaud the focus on the positivity and hope of a benevolent agenda and not getting down into the weeds to fight over each act of Trumpian idiocy. The USA is still the beacon of hope for millions around the world - because of freedom and democracy. I know from the diet of news headlines on the news websites that the right in the UK and the USA dominate the news agenda. It's always to be spiteful, never positive and to blame anything on 'the other'. I applaud your efforts Simon and thank you for them. May Hopium Chronicles prosper and bring light, hope, optimism and yes, joy, into the political discourse.
Just saw this tidbit cited in the WSJ: "In recent interviews with potential nominees to lead bank regulatory agencies, President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers and officials from his newfound Department of Government Efficiency have, for example, asked whether he could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter said."
My brain can't even process the daily (potential) horrors. And I guess that's their point.
And they don't care that their insane policies and sabotage will reduce the total amount of money, goods, and quality of life, as long as no one else gets so much as a crumb.
I agree wholeheartedly that elected officials need to get louder, need to see themselves as influencers and info warriors with enormous platforms to help shape the information environment. How do we make that happen? It's discouraging when so many of them are already obeying and retreating in advance (Chris Wray, while not elected, is the latest example.)
I realize that this nominee does not make it into the unacceptable four, but it's worth noting Chris Wright, the nominee for Department of Energy. He's a....wait for it....oil and gas executive. And he has zero political experience. And that's just the start.
Wright is likely to be involved in expansion of nuclear power
Wright is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver. He is expected to support Trump's plan to maximize production of oil and gas and to seek ways to boost generation of electricity, demand for which is rising for the first time in decades.
He is also likely to share Trump's opposition to global cooperation on fighting climate change. Wright has called climate change activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism.
Maybe Wright should sit in an office this summer with no airconditioning. If CT had record breaking heat of over 100 for God knows how many days, I imagine D.C. is likewise affected.
I'm a big admirer of Mr. Krugman, but this is silly: "You’d like to think that when everything goes wrong — when his demands that foreigners both invest in America and stop running trade surpluses aren’t met, because that’s arithmetically impossible — he’ll back off and take advice from the adults in the room. But there won’t be any adults in the room. And I have no idea what comes next."
We all know what comes next.
What comes next is that the fascists blame someone else for the things that go wrong. It's the fault of the Jewish bankers, of the immigrants, of the last administration, of the "enemy from within" aka us, etc. It's God's punishing us because we let gays get married, let women use birth control, took prayer out of school, etc. And the same people who pretended to care so much about the economy happily go burn Jewish businesses, turn in immigrants, shave women's heads, etc.
After a while, one group of scapegoats may get old, but there's always more. Those greedy old people sucking up Social Security and Medicare. Public school teachers and librarians. Doctors who give vaccines.
One thing our side could be doing is to say right now and over and over that Trump's plans will blow up and he'll blame some group of scapegoats. Then when he does it, we say, "There he goes again. We told you he'd do this."
Simon, I enjoy Hopium as much as the next guy, but I have a growing feeling of horror about the coming Trump administration. Trump/MAGA are ok with making up 'evidence' to start legal proceedings, Kash Patel will never 'push back' against insane orders, etc, etc. Aren't we looking at the end of all 'due process'?
I agree in general that we need to focus on us and not so much on them, but with a caveat.
When some of the bad things happen, including to Trump voters, we need to be there to make common cause with as many of them as we can find, and direct their emotions and anger towards different targets. I think one story we might tell is that Trump is weak and unable to stand up to the billionaires that are controlling him. As they get richer, and Trump's policies hit ordinary people hard, we need to get as many on our side against Elon and the other techbros (for starters).
There is an interesting TED talk about countering propaganda. It is based on understanding Allied efforts to counter propaganda within Germany. It is worth a view because it contains some specific guidance. Link below:
yes simon we have to define ourselves again. i personally have given up a lot of media because of the relentless coverage of the felon. now mostly substack, bluesky, lawrence and rachel on monday. i think our best strategy is to win elections. period. that is the best opposition. with a strong focus on the house in 2026 to help stop the carnage. special elections. Va governor. NC still needs help. there will be many opposition groups to go after the felon. but i think we need to focus on rebuilding the dem party with youthful leaders and new, ever present digital comms. the senate is especially sluggish. and dems winning elections is our goal. 50 state strategy, 365/24/7 comms. new dnc leader that reflects this. we have approx 155K members. if we are targeted, we can be effective. he wont be stopped until 1) somehow we can infiltrate their news silos 2) his voters start to suffer 3) americans rise up because they hate extremism. i dont think maga and the felon are our targets. i think the democratic party is. which you have life long experience with and so you are the perfect guide.
This is a fascinating discussion, featuring Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb and Kansas-raised author and journalist Sarah Smarsh. The comments from callers are eye-opening. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7lH9Ow35afPnPe0Gx9UsGH
I think we are still too focused on the presidential elections and lose focus on local issues. MAGA was smart when they started pushing their agendas at school board meetings. I'm not sure how to organize that but we need to start fighting there.
In the latter days of the campaign I read “Democracy or Else: How to Save America in Ten East Steps” by John Favreau (Pod Save America). It’s a quick read full of grit and aimed at the attention-deficit, graphics loving generation, of which I am not. But reading it has prodded me to begin pestering my elected officials, donating bits of money when I can, seeking connection with the exhausted Democrats in my Ruby-red district of Central CA, and toying with the notion of putting my 73+ year old self up for a local election. I recommend the book very highly.
NJ will be a tough get; 8 years of an unpopular Dem governor ( the only kind there is here ) and the only one to be re-elected in some 40 years, we are due for a correction. In fact NJ has had mostly R governors since the 80s. And they have all been awful.
1 - Trump's crypto venture with Tron platform raises alarming security concerns. A president profiting from networks exploited by militant groups compromises our anti-terrorism efforts. We need leaders who prioritize national security over personal gain and maintain strong financial oversight.
(Youth-focused version: Heads up: Trump's new crypto deal is super sketchy. He's making money from platforms that bad actors use to hide money. A president shouldn't profit from systems that make our country less safe. We need leaders who put our safety first, not their wallet.)
2- Appointing an inexperienced truck salesman to oversee Middle East policy shows dangerous disregard for diplomatic expertise. Complex regional challenges require qualified advisors with deep understanding. Our security depends on competent, merit-based leadership, not nepotism.
(Youth-focused version: Trump picked a used truck salesman with zero experience to handle Middle East policy. That's like choosing someone who's never played basketball to coach the NBA finals. These are serious issues that need real experts, not just friends and family.)
I'm just trying to figure out how we say "these dudes are cray-cray, they're going to cause a lot of problems" while senior Democrats who warned of fascism are also saying "oh, I really look forward to working with Trump and Patel and RFK and Hegseth..."
Simon - I'm struggling with how to call out their insanity, their horror, the amount of suffering they will cause, along with the idea that we need to talk about how great Dems are. It's very difficult if the national Dems are being polite and kind; the Harris campaign felt best when they were making clear that Republicans are completely nuts and weird.
I know that even Joe Manchin would be better than 99% of the Republican party, but how do you handle that when these people who need to actually "oppose" are busy collaborating?
This^^^^. Where is party leadership? The Dems seem ready to bend the knee and T isn’t even in office yet. The only thing I feel like I can do is donate to organizations ready to fight back and post on social media. I spent the better part of a year trying to get Harris and Dems elected (we all do). I’d love to have some marching orders moving forward.
We pester them. Daily. We praise any little good thing they do every time they do it.. We gently chide and question their rationale for the giant bad things we see them do. We remember with compassion that they live in a world with pressures and priorities we may not know about and we ask, firmly, that they explain themselves to us. And maybe we decide to run for office ourselves.
So much this. Call out their SH*T. Constantly. Do not let them off the hook. They work for us!
It’s too early on a Monday 10 days before Xmas… to teach the language ( literal and body language of a winning political strategy) to sweet distracted sixth graders… This is a very complex MESS !
Can you imagine how our current diplomats in the Middle East are thinking/feeling?!! Our COUNTRY IS A LEADER AMONG ALL the countries on EARTH .. MUST have some ADULTS
I think we have to BE the adults. I worked as a nanny in my young adulthood. The job description carries crossover skills for this situation. 😢
I agree with most of what you said. But your last paragraph just doesn't belong. You should have stopped while you were ahead.
Can you please clarify what you mean? I detected nothing wrong with that person's final paragraph and feel I might have missed something.
LET US SEIZE OUR OPPORTUNITIES – and they are many!
Simon, great summary, as always! In these dark times, it’s easy to become paralyzed by outrageous news and seemingly-insurmountable challenges. However, the key to remaining effective and building a brighter future is to seize opportunities – and they are there!
Below, I have detailed some concrete examples of our opportunities.
SPECIAL ELECTIONS: We need to fight with our best candidate even in longshot elections. Given Democrats’ recent 2024 wins and Trump plucking nominees from the House, Republicans have a historically narrow margin – a recipe for even greater chaos and paralysis than Johnson & Co have exhibited so far. And Democrats need to be loud about that and squeeze out every concession we can.
However, with skill and luck, the special elections also present a chance to flip the House and make Hakeem Jeffries Speaker already in 2025!
agree 100% - these are winnable!
I could not agree more. I've observed in the UK and Europe that the 'left' too often cedes elections in rural areas in particular. This despite a significant minority of the people in such areas supporting progressive politics. I believe this to be prevalent in UK, Europe and USA. So, putting up good candidates and competing everywhere is the right way forward.
With you on the Special Elections work. I am skeptical of Hakeem Jeffries at the moment. If he wants to be our standard bearer in 2026, he better do more than "find common ground" with the party that wants to create a dictatorship of incompetents in 2025.
STATE SUPREME COURTS: State supreme court seats are perhaps the most consequential downballot races in our elections – and yet they are often the most overlooked. This lever of power really matters. We can see how important Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s 2023 win was in Wisconsin! The now-liberal court ended some of America’s worst gerrymanders.
We need to make sure that we run the best candidates and best possible campaigns in every upcoming election for state supreme courts. Imho, Hopium should focus strongly on and invest resources in every such race.
Likewise, we can see how costly our narrow loss was of the North Carolina Supreme Court was in 2020, which up until then had a liberal majority. The new conservative supreme court majority immediately overturned previous court decisions in a blatantly partisan fashion.
Tragically, Cheri Beasley lost by just 400 votes out of 5.4 million cast. Part of the story is that local election boards rejected more than 2000 specific absentee and provisional ballots.
https://apnews.com/article/state-elections-north-carolina-elections-courts-voting-f306377fbc13ff2675ee33b897750de2
In North Carolina, Republicans are trying to steal Allison Riggs’ recent election victory for the State Supreme Court. Also, the Republican super-majority in the state legislature is trying to strip incoming Governor Josh Stein of key powers. These undemocratic power grabs need to be stopped!
The five Justices of New Mexico Supreme Court are all Democrats by partisan election. Here's how they are chosen in each state. https://ballotpedia.org/Judicial_election_methods_by_state
Nice overview.
Consequential State Elections to Watch In 2025
By Matt Cohen
December 12, 2024
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/consequential-state-elections-to-watch-in-2025/
SUSAN CRAWFORD FOR WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT
https://www.crawfordforwi.com
DEMOCRATIC TRIFECTAS REALLY MATTER! One of the best ways to show the contrast between Us and Them is to highlight the difference between what Democrats and Republicans do in states where they have a trifecta. That contrast is stark – and it should be publicized far and wide and loud!
With trifecta control of state government, Democrats accomplished incredible things in Michigan under Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and under Governor Tim Walz in Minnesota. (Compare that with e.g. DeSantis’ Florida or Abbott’s Texas.)
Unfortunately, Democrats just narrowly lost their trifectas in both Michigan and Minnesota.
Democratic trifectas are the recipe for getting good stuff done. These Blue states need to be our exhibition windows.
Love this idea of showcasing red v blue states in terms of quality of life, economics, health outcomes, etc! Could also do that over time with swing states like MI, comparing the Whitmer era with the Snider era, for example (reminder: Flint water crisis happened under Snider, a republican)
CT has a trifecta and have increased those majorities in the State House. Very proud of our state and it's governor, Ned Lamont.
Ballotpedia lists the 15 current Democratic Trifecta states as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington. In NM Democrats have the state House, the state Senate, all US Congress members, Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Auditor, State Treasurer, Commissioner of Public Lands.
DON’T OBEY IN ADVANCE MEANS A DEM CANDIDATE IN EVERY RACE!
In 2024, Democrats left more than a thousand legislative races uncontested. That is political malpractice! For it is tantamount to conceding defeat and "obeying in advance". (The fact that Republicans failed to contest even more legislative seats, more than 1300, is NOT a mitigating fact.)
The Florida Democratic Party showed us how to do it: they made sure to run a candidate for every legislative seat! Florida Democrats are getting their mojo back.
We need to duplicate that strategy in all 50 states!
SEEK BIPARTISAN OBSTRUCTION OF TRUMP’s AGENDA
Despite the fact that Trump has transformed the Republican Party into the proto-Fascist MAGA Party, not all Republicans are on board with all of his policies. On specific issues, we can seize the opportunity to form some surprising alliances. For example:
Rand Paul (yes, him!) is deeply skeptical of Trump’s costly border and deportation plans. Importantly, Senator Paul can do something about it; he will chair the Senate committee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security. Because the border & deportation is Trump’s Priority No.1 for early 2025, Democrats can work with Senator Rand Paul to block, modify or slow-walk implementation of Trump’s inhumane policies. Destroying this keystone will politically weaken him, while strengthening us in other upcoming battles.
This article highlights Rand Paul’s views and is well worth reading.
https://www.axios.com/2024/12/13/rand-paul-trump-thune-border-immigration
You have expressed my thinking about some Republicans being skeptical with (and I would hope appalled at) Trump's policies and nominees. I need advice from a political strategist about the 48.4% of us putting pressure on the Republicans in office to not go along with the "blow torch" approach to reforming our government and destroying our Democracy. I cannot stand by and let any of this happen. I want to find an effective action to take. I have emailed, written letters and called Republicans on the judiciary committee to insist that they carry out their responsibility to vet the nominees. I am encouraging others to do the same. My question is - am I naive in thinking this is a good plan? If it is a good plan are their others who want to join me? And what would it take to make this really work? All thoughts are welcome. Anita Bingaman from Washington State.
In a number of Hopium posts, Simon has posted concrete suggestion. And in comments, numerous people have shared examples and suggestions, as well as info about good networking and groups beyond Hopium. They have offered far better advice than I can! :)
I tried to respond to your comment in the Activity column, but something went wrong. I’ll see if this works.
A
"Are You in a Cult? Evaluate your group now by using Dr. Steven Hassan's BITE Model of Authoritarian Control."
Test determines if any group is beneficial or destructive, ethical or unethical, healthy or unhealthy.
https://bitemodel.com/
“…once Trump and the Republicans take over next year and we become the opposition and no longer the governing party.” This direct quote from this article is the reason I have no Hopium anymore. No offense meant but the ONE and ONLY conversation we need to be having is how to STOP Putin from taking over America. I can participate (or lead) that movement. NO OTHER will do. Once they got into the White House the doors are locked to all of us. That is how fascism works.
How we stop Putin is the question. Building Grassroots opposition is the answer. Give the scared little people back a vision of empowerment and a thirst for sunlight.
Simon, I hope you and our community will accept this request in the spirit intended. I'm posting here because your activism has inspired me to pivot professionally: I'm seeking work in the nonprofit sector, preferably in some aspect of civil rights. I'm a writer, editor, proofreader, etc. with a strong research background and would love to put my skills to good use opposing what's ahead for this country.
I'm not asking anyone for a job. I know I need to earn that; and I can earn it. If anyone can help me build my network, I would deeply appreciate it. I can be found on Linked In under this name. Contact there or through the DM tool here is welcome. Thank you!
All the analysis of the new (sorry) administration is exhausting ...so I support, applaud, and NEED your optimism and hope wherever we can find it. Thank you, Simon...my political soul can read your reports.
Hi Simon, I applaud the focus on the positivity and hope of a benevolent agenda and not getting down into the weeds to fight over each act of Trumpian idiocy. The USA is still the beacon of hope for millions around the world - because of freedom and democracy. I know from the diet of news headlines on the news websites that the right in the UK and the USA dominate the news agenda. It's always to be spiteful, never positive and to blame anything on 'the other'. I applaud your efforts Simon and thank you for them. May Hopium Chronicles prosper and bring light, hope, optimism and yes, joy, into the political discourse.
Just saw this tidbit cited in the WSJ: "In recent interviews with potential nominees to lead bank regulatory agencies, President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers and officials from his newfound Department of Government Efficiency have, for example, asked whether he could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter said."
My brain can't even process the daily (potential) horrors. And I guess that's their point.
For America’s worst oligarchs, there is only one great sin: Somewhere there is money that does not yet belong to them.
And they don't care that their insane policies and sabotage will reduce the total amount of money, goods, and quality of life, as long as no one else gets so much as a crumb.
I agree wholeheartedly that elected officials need to get louder, need to see themselves as influencers and info warriors with enormous platforms to help shape the information environment. How do we make that happen? It's discouraging when so many of them are already obeying and retreating in advance (Chris Wray, while not elected, is the latest example.)
I realize that this nominee does not make it into the unacceptable four, but it's worth noting Chris Wright, the nominee for Department of Energy. He's a....wait for it....oil and gas executive. And he has zero political experience. And that's just the start.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-picks-oil-industry-ceo-chris-wright-energy-secretary-2024-11-16/
Wright is a defender of fossil fuel use
Last year he said, 'There is no climate crisis'
Wright is likely to be involved in expansion of nuclear power
Wright is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver. He is expected to support Trump's plan to maximize production of oil and gas and to seek ways to boost generation of electricity, demand for which is rising for the first time in decades.
He is also likely to share Trump's opposition to global cooperation on fighting climate change. Wright has called climate change activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism.
Maybe Wright should sit in an office this summer with no airconditioning. If CT had record breaking heat of over 100 for God knows how many days, I imagine D.C. is likewise affected.
I'm a big admirer of Mr. Krugman, but this is silly: "You’d like to think that when everything goes wrong — when his demands that foreigners both invest in America and stop running trade surpluses aren’t met, because that’s arithmetically impossible — he’ll back off and take advice from the adults in the room. But there won’t be any adults in the room. And I have no idea what comes next."
We all know what comes next.
What comes next is that the fascists blame someone else for the things that go wrong. It's the fault of the Jewish bankers, of the immigrants, of the last administration, of the "enemy from within" aka us, etc. It's God's punishing us because we let gays get married, let women use birth control, took prayer out of school, etc. And the same people who pretended to care so much about the economy happily go burn Jewish businesses, turn in immigrants, shave women's heads, etc.
After a while, one group of scapegoats may get old, but there's always more. Those greedy old people sucking up Social Security and Medicare. Public school teachers and librarians. Doctors who give vaccines.
One thing our side could be doing is to say right now and over and over that Trump's plans will blow up and he'll blame some group of scapegoats. Then when he does it, we say, "There he goes again. We told you he'd do this."
Simon, I enjoy Hopium as much as the next guy, but I have a growing feeling of horror about the coming Trump administration. Trump/MAGA are ok with making up 'evidence' to start legal proceedings, Kash Patel will never 'push back' against insane orders, etc, etc. Aren't we looking at the end of all 'due process'?
I agree in general that we need to focus on us and not so much on them, but with a caveat.
When some of the bad things happen, including to Trump voters, we need to be there to make common cause with as many of them as we can find, and direct their emotions and anger towards different targets. I think one story we might tell is that Trump is weak and unable to stand up to the billionaires that are controlling him. As they get richer, and Trump's policies hit ordinary people hard, we need to get as many on our side against Elon and the other techbros (for starters).
There is an interesting TED talk about countering propaganda. It is based on understanding Allied efforts to counter propaganda within Germany. It is worth a view because it contains some specific guidance. Link below:
https://youtu.be/sgHHRVH0NFo?si=qPG4zAA0v6VVn2Ip
yes simon we have to define ourselves again. i personally have given up a lot of media because of the relentless coverage of the felon. now mostly substack, bluesky, lawrence and rachel on monday. i think our best strategy is to win elections. period. that is the best opposition. with a strong focus on the house in 2026 to help stop the carnage. special elections. Va governor. NC still needs help. there will be many opposition groups to go after the felon. but i think we need to focus on rebuilding the dem party with youthful leaders and new, ever present digital comms. the senate is especially sluggish. and dems winning elections is our goal. 50 state strategy, 365/24/7 comms. new dnc leader that reflects this. we have approx 155K members. if we are targeted, we can be effective. he wont be stopped until 1) somehow we can infiltrate their news silos 2) his voters start to suffer 3) americans rise up because they hate extremism. i dont think maga and the felon are our targets. i think the democratic party is. which you have life long experience with and so you are the perfect guide.
This is a fascinating discussion, featuring Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb and Kansas-raised author and journalist Sarah Smarsh. The comments from callers are eye-opening. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7lH9Ow35afPnPe0Gx9UsGH
I think we are still too focused on the presidential elections and lose focus on local issues. MAGA was smart when they started pushing their agendas at school board meetings. I'm not sure how to organize that but we need to start fighting there.
I agree. We need to focus everywhere we can make a difference.
In the latter days of the campaign I read “Democracy or Else: How to Save America in Ten East Steps” by John Favreau (Pod Save America). It’s a quick read full of grit and aimed at the attention-deficit, graphics loving generation, of which I am not. But reading it has prodded me to begin pestering my elected officials, donating bits of money when I can, seeking connection with the exhausted Democrats in my Ruby-red district of Central CA, and toying with the notion of putting my 73+ year old self up for a local election. I recommend the book very highly.
NJ, NJ, NJ & VA, VA, VA.
NJ will be a tough get; 8 years of an unpopular Dem governor ( the only kind there is here ) and the only one to be re-elected in some 40 years, we are due for a correction. In fact NJ has had mostly R governors since the 80s. And they have all been awful.